A probing, satiric, insightful, cynical, humorous, whimsical, Pythonesque examination of politics and those who practice politics along with refreshing perspectives on the events, times, programs, legislation, rulings and pronouncements of the ruling Cabal of self-interested self serving promoters who would sacrifice everything--the land, nature, our wonderful pristine environments for personal gain and narrow interests...

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Stumbles and bumbling in the hunt for bin Laden...

Second Thoughts

Bin Laden’s escape from Bora Bora has been troubling.

To see if I’ve missed anything, I have been watching documentary after documentary about bin Laden, what is known about his days in Africa, his involvement in Pakistan with Mullah Omar, the arrangement of the murder of the leader of the Northern Alliance, America’s seemingly half-hearted approach to tracking him down and feeble attempts to capture him.

The conclusion is almost inescapable: We did everything within our power to avoid catching bin Laden.

A wrong conclusion from circumstantial evidence you say.

Okay, let’s check the facts.

When we knew bin Laden was in Afghanistan, we could have nailed him if we brought in enough troops and moved decisively.

Interviews with Special Forces who were there on the scene show that.

We didn’t do either.

We went after bin Laden with as small a force of special forces as possible.

Why?

Bin Laden had just viciously executed an attack on the WTC; that was the best we could do?.

We found out where bin Laden was but instead of bringing in our own troops, we tried to work a deal with the Northern Alliance. This took time and money and in many ways cost us our advantage. Again, Special Forces on the scene admit that before he went into hiding, we could have taken him out with the right application of force.

From the evidence, it is hard not to agree.

Finally, with our money and our air force, the Northern Alliance cooperated. However, when bin Laden fled to Bora Bora, we still did not bring in enough troops and enough force to execute the mission successfully.

Why?

It seemed that we were mainly going through the motions to satisfy the American people with little intention of really catching bin Laden.

Instead of using our own forces, we made a deal with the local tribal leaders, mainly Pashtoon, to track down bin Laden. But Mullah Omar was Pashtoon and bin Laden was under his protection and among Pashtoons, you treat your friends like family and extend to them your protection. The Special Forces knew that; yet they still went ahead as if they knew that this tactic was bound to fail.

When you consider how badly we fumbled the ball, one wonders what our true intentions were? Were we that inefficient, that stupid that we would turn to the Pashtoons for help when we knew they would support bin Laden..

If we let bin Laden go, one might hypothesize that the terrorism threat to the US would be mainly over. No other Foreign leader had the temerity or the capacity to bring terror to the US. Was there any advantage to eliminating the threat that transformed your government into a dictatorship that suspended individual rights and gave you unilateralist freedom to do precisely as you liked with the full support of the American people?

Or could there be an even darker motive?

Might it be that we didn’t want bin Laden captured and interrogated?

If you look at all the question marks that abound around 9/11 and then look at how badly we actually pursued bin Laden—and these questions are documented by CIA operatives who pursued bin Laden—we begin to ask ourselves why we are guilty of either the worst and most brainless screw-ups in the Western World, or our actions were motivated by intent.

We don’t know all the answers yet, but the questions keep piling up.For example, if we caught bin Laden, could we still conduct a war on terrorism?

Questions heaped on top of questions cause us to ask how many of these can be real coincidences….and the depth of suspicion only rises.

Clearly, survival for us hinges on whether we shall ever get to the bottom of all these unanswered questions and to ask ourselves early on whether we are all too willing to set aside what we know and what we think.

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About Me

A few things that drive me: Fair Play and representation of the smaller guy who tends to get beat up by the system.
In representing the small guy's interest in good, clean government, government that is fair to the governed--the way the Founding Fathers saw it, I like to give it back to the bullies in spades.
the guys who always complain about "our Values" those self professed arbiters of what's right and what's wrong; those guys who wave the flag and never served because they were too busy! Those Crusaders who are ready for Armegeddon!...and don't care who they sacrifice on the way!...And when I'm doing this, I also like to introduce a little levity, tweak their noses, yank their chains, inject some sarcasm and, hopefully, a little wit that flies over their heads. If you came around for the truth, good for you. If you came around the truth and the ability to give it back to the Right Wing lunatics, so much the better. With a media that's copped out, a Congress that is compliant, a government that is never mindful of those it governs, it is time for people like you and me to take back our country!